Goldie looked at him, mouth opening to answer, or dodge, or something, when a sharp buzz split the tension. She jerked her gaze down to her phone, heart giving a startled kick.
Tamsin Donover
Come to my house. 8 p.m. We’ll discuss.
Her breath hitched. She held up the phone for Splice to see, her voice steady despite the tremor running through her. “My coven leader. She’ll help us figure this out. She’s the smartest witch I know. If anyone can help, it’s her.”
A thought pushed its way forward: one that had been hovering all day, half-formed and absurd, but impossible to ignore now. It burned behind her teeth, electric with possibilityand risk. Determination flickered through her face before faltering as she turned back to look at Mycor. Awe tangled with dread in her chest, heavy enough to make her throat tighten.
She swallowed. “Oh. Well. Um.” Her gaze darted to Splice, then back to the god. “Does he… need more than just… sexenergy?”
Splice’s brows drew together. “Does he need what?”
She made a hesitant, wildly inappropriate little gesture with her hands. “Yeah, I mean… the rot is getting worse, quickly, and wejusthad sex twelve hours ago. So, I was thinking that… um…”
“Need,” rasped Mycor suddenly.
Both of them jolted like children caught whispering in church. Green flooded Splice’s cheeks, sharp against his pallor. His vines twitched along his arms, restless, serpentine.
Goldie sucked in a breath, willing her voice to steady. “Okay. Look. If we need to have sex again, I’m enthusiastically consenting, because it was excellent, ten out of ten, would absolutely ritual again. But…”
She dropped her voice to a conspiratorial whisper, as if volume might disguise the sheer insanity of the conversation. “Would something more…involved…help him stabilize for longer?”
Splice stared. “Involved how?”
Goldie groaned, dragging her hands down her face. “Oh, don’t make me say it out loud, Splice. So you and I had sex, right? And that helped. But maybe I need to—do I need tohave sex with Mycor directly?”
Splice looked as though he’d been physically slapped by the sentence, vines curling like defensive reflexes.
Goldie let out a cracked, helpless laugh and buried her face in her hands. “Please. I don’t know what’s happening, but it feels like Mycor needs some kind of… sex watering. Divine boning. Mystical dick therapy.”
A beat of silence. “Gods,” she muttered. “I am in a nightmare. What the hells am I even saying?”
Mycor’s breath stirred again. Goldie looked up, catching Splice’s eyes glowing as he communed with his god, lips parted as though he were listening to something beyond her hearing. He exhaled hard, like the weight of the answer had landed directly on his shoulders.
“Goldie—” he began.
She shook her head quickly, cutting him off. “I’m sorry. I know. It’s stupid. Forget I mentioned it.”
His sigh came rough and reluctant. But his hand lifted, settling on her hip with a strange blend of gentleness and possession. “It would help,” he admitted. “But, Goldie…”
His eyes found hers, and she saw something raw and uncertain flickering beneath the surface. “You tell me not to drain myself for him. But now you’re offering this. Is this something you actuallywant? Or something you think youshoulddo?”
She opened her mouth, unsure whether to argue or reassure, but Splice pressed on, voice fraying.
“I don’t want you to do this out of guilt. Or duty. And… selfishly, I don’t want you to do this at all.”
Her heart clenched. “Splice?—”
“I know he needs it. And I want him to be whole. I need him to be well. Ido.” His jaw flexed, barely keeping the grief from spilling through. “But I hate that it has to be you.”
Goldie blinked, startled by how bare his voice was. There was no anger in it. Just grief. Tenderness. Want.
“It’s not like I’m being forced,” she said softly, trying to keep it light, though the words trembled.
“No.” The word cracked out of him. “I don’t like that you’re doing thisand it’s not with me.”
Goldie leaned in, her hand rising to cradle Splice’s jaw. Her smile, small and steady, carried both defiance and understanding. “Hey. It’s okay. You’re here with me, right?”
